Purifying charity

The Philippine Daily Inquirer last Sunday ran as its top story a   review of the cash aid being given by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) to over 100 charitable institutions, many of them run by the Catholic Church, nationwide.

Among the institutions that may no longer be given money by the state gambling firm-cum-charity institution are at least four from Cebu City, PCSO insiders told the Inquirer.

These are Mother Seton Development Center,  which used to receive P400,000 every month from PCSO; Asilo dela Milagrosa (P320,000); Villa Maria Good Shepherd Sisters in Cebu City (P280,000); and Handicapped’s Anchor Is Christ  (P240,000).

These institutions are the refuge of vulnerable people like unwed mothers, orphans and the physically challenged, among others.

In explaining the review of assistance to these centers, PCSO chairperson Margarita Juico said that funds given to them were misused.

The beneficiaries “used the PCSO financial assistance on salaries of personnel, electricity and water bills, gasoline and transportation expenses, among other things. They should have spent [the money] on health and nutrition-related items,” Juico said.

The money was supposed to be spent on medicine, health care products and food, said Juico, who was quoted in a follow-up story as saying, “We will be sitting down with these organizations to hear their side and to listen to their explanations.”

We don’t know how the religious orders that run these institutions will respond to this developing story. Their religious superiors have some autonomy from the country’s Catholic bishops.

What’s clear is that the laity and perhaps nongovernment groups have to be ready to fill the shoes of the PCSO so that charity services to grassroots communities and the marginalized won’t  be interrupted.

Whatever be the PCSO board,  many members of the Catholic hierarchy already went on record—at the height of the controversy over sports utility vehicles donated by the State to dioceses—saying they would no longer accept aid from the PCSO to get rid of the perception of the Church as  a monolithic Padre Damaso that condemns gambling yet benefits from its proceeds.

Incidentally—providentially for Church people—Pope Benedict XVI gave a relevant speech during his state visit to Germany the day news of the PCSO purge came out.

“Secularizing trends—whether by expropriation of Church goods, or elimination of privileges or the like—have always meant a profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness …

“Once liberated from material and political burdens and privileges, the Church can reach out more effectively … live more freely her vocation to the ministry of divine worship and service of neighbor.”

These   words should encourage Catholic leaders in the Philippines to refuse aid from sources inconsistent with their values so that the  moral voice of the Church, now perceived to be garbled, would regain its resonance.